Seizures permanently having negative/permanent(?) affects on memory

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Eggbertx

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I could be wrong and spouting incredible amounts of nonsense here, but I've noticed that since I started having tonic-clonic seizures, my memory has been horrible. Well, a fair bet worse than usual. I remember reading something about memories being made by neural pathways (synapses?) in the brain, and when you forget something, it just means your brain lost track of the corresponding pathway, and it can still be found. I think I read something else about seizures causing such a strain on your brain that they can destroy these pathways, causing memory loss.
I've also noticed my short term memory is also not great, but that may or may not be related.
 
My memory is horrible. I had my first seizure about 11 years ago and I remember very little of what went on in the 10 years before that. There are things that I know I did but I don't remember happened while doing it. It's just not up there any more.

I know that I'd gone to visit a friend in Chicago when she was in college but I can't tell you a thing about it. A few months a go my husband and I went to see a movie and I had a pretty bad seizure a day or two later. I know that we'd gone to see the movie but I have no clue what it was called or even what the movie was about.

Just tonight my mom was telling me about when a me and a friend of mine went to Florida. We got kicked out of the hotel we were staying at while we were done there. It's a really long story and it wasn't because we were drunk and having a wild and crazy party because neither one of us are like that. I remember absolutely nothing about that, not even that I went there.

When I first started having seizures I'd usually loose a few hours to days of memory of things that happened before the seizure and it was gone, it never came back. It isn't that bad now but still when I forget something it never comes back.

After about 6 months things start to fade away and the things don't come back. Again, it's just not up there any more. It seems though if it's something really funny or that I really liked I can still remember it.

There was a job that I worked at that I absolutely loved and I bet I could go back there and work again with almost no problems because I remember so much about it.

It took me about 3 years to actually remember that President Regan had died. Every time something would come on tv about him I'd ask my husband if he was still alive. He'd tell me he was dead and that we'd watched his funeral. If something would come on tv saying about his death I'd be really surprised because I didn't know that he was dead so I'd ask my husband when he had died. I remember that he's dead now because it's sort of become a joke because if something about him is brought up I always ask my husband when he'd died and start laughing.

There was a time that my husband thought he saw a UFO, which is pretty funny. I remember this because if something comes up about aliens or UFOs I always ask him if he thinks it's the one that he saw.

He get's mad though because I'll remember all these stupid/funny things but it seems that I never remember the serious/important things.
 
That has happened to me a lot as well. I'm a front end cashier at Walmart, and someone I know that I know saw me and said hi, so I said hi, since I recognized his face, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember his name or how I knew him. I think I do now, but I'm not entirely certain.

He get's mad though because I'll remember all these stupid/funny things but it seems that I never remember the serious/important things.
I've had this happen a lot as well
 
People who know me will come up and start talking to me but I have no clue who they are, I think everyone should wear name tags. I've finally just started staying "I'm sorry but who are you? I don't remember".

They'll tell me who they are and usually how we know each other. Sometimes I'll remember who they are and other times I won't. If I don't remember who they are I'll just act like I do and let the other person do all the talking in the conversation answering any questions they have as best as I can.
 
It was the med Dilantin that gave me a terrible memory while I was on it. When I came off it my memory improved like 90%. I usually don't remember my seizures and can take a couple of times before I remember a person's name. After the 50 years of having sz's my memory definitely isn't destroyed.I have a good memory.
 
My memory's screwed as well- long and short term. Think it's a mix of brain damage and meds :/
 
About 2 years ago I had a set of tc seizures that left me unconscious for 5 days and when I came to I lost about 13 years of my memory and since then I have only recovered very little of those years. I also now have terrible short term memory and have only recovered very little of those years. I also have no sense of time when I remember something it could have happened 1 month ago or 6 months ago.
 
Ive just been sent to a cognitive behavior therapist that specializes in memory. He said it was common for him to get epilepsy patients with problems pertaining to memory. My short term is below average and my immediate memory is shot and practically non existent. Other than that Im good. The problems seem to get worse when I have a flair in activity and he said it would make perfect sense that it would.
 
I lost decades of long-term memory because my seizures went undetected for almost 35 years. Funny thing is I remember the most horrible events almost like yesterday...I don't want to say like yesterday, but definitely some of them so. My short term memory is gone too. My neurologist says that brain cells were damaged and the memories won't come back, ever.
 
That sounds exactly like my husband only I also find that if he gets excited or "wound-up" about something, his memory takes a big hit as well as his "not being able to find the right word" problem. He was lucky I guess that he didn't really have to deal with the damage until age 49 when he had a major seizure after years without any. Good luck!
 
I lose my keys every day". I always had kind of a bad memory. Since about the age of ten. But after my coma, 39 I totally lost it" . At least I can medetate and that really helps"
 
When I have a seizure at night the next day everything that happens seems to only go into the short term memory file and gets dumped at the end of the day. If I meet someone or make a promise to be someplace on that day, it's not going to stick.

As long as I'm not having seizures my memory is normal but there is a time period in my past, my early 20s, when I was having a lot of seizures and "self medicating" to forget about the pain where there are some scary big blank spaces.

I ran into an old boyfriend from that era and had to ask him in all sincerity why we had broken up. I couldn't remember a thing about it (even though he and I had been together for years).
 
My memory is shit since my seizure activity jumped about a month ago. I used to self-medicate w/ marijuana so I always had something to blame it on, but it's now obviously seizure-related. I go out never remember people's names, and almost always lose something
 
My memory is HORRIBLE!! Both short and long term. I believe it's due to experiencing many tonic clinic seizures countless concussions and medication...my fear is by the time I'm 50 I'll have the brain of an Alzheimer's patient... it's depressing...hang in there you are NOT ALONE
 
Epilepsy memory

My memory sucks the most, sine the coma and sneaking at some of my records, I dont have much perefial vision. Guys ,wonderful I dated hated epilepsy or could not stand my memory loss, life goes on,😛😪😍
 
So, going by the responses by some of you, that memory gets impaired by the seizure activity especially the tonic/clonic's...does that also impact on one's ability to learn new stuff also?...

and to retain it?
 
does that also impact on one's ability to learn new stuff also?...and to retain it?
It differs quite a bit for individuals (and AEDs can potentially play a contributory role), but frequent repeated uncontrollable seizures of any type — not only tonic–clonic ones but partials as well — can take a long-term toll on memory. Both short-term encoding as well as longer-term retrieval can be affected. In particular, verbal learning can become more difficult and memory recall can be delayed.

On the positive side, if good seizure control is eventually achieved -- even after years of intractability -- there's still potential for memory and other cognitive skills to improve.
 
It differs quite a bit for individuals (and AEDs can potentially play a contributory role), but frequent repeated uncontrollable seizures of any type — not only tonic–clonic ones but partials as well — can take a long-term toll on memory. Both short-term encoding as well as longer-term retrieval can be affected. In particular, verbal learning can become more difficult and memory recall can be delayed.

On the positive side, if good seizure control is eventually achieved -- even after years of intractability -- there's still potential for memory and other cognitive skills to improve.

Could you provide a source to this? As the only sources I was able to find seemed to focus on temporal lobe epilepsy.
Seizures causing a non-temporary decrease in memory-performance (in contrast to other factors that might temporarily cause memory issues, like side-effects of anticonvulsants) will have large implications for epilepsy patients and it is therefore important to differ whether only certain forms of epilepsy are prone to this or in fact all seizures have this potential.

Sorry if I am talking nonsense or starting an unncessary discussion about trivial information, but I received quite some contradicting information about this issue in the past: While my parents used to tell me that i will become dumber if I keep having seizures (their strategy for making sure that I took my medication... and one that didnt work out too well), one Doctor told me that seizures themselves should not cause permanent problems with my memory (though I cannot remember if he was a Neurologist).

So yeah, I am really curious whether this is limited to temporal lobe epilepsy patients or if all seizures can in theory permanently reduce your memory skills.
 
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